


"I'll walk you home."

by ThunderAndMadness



Series: 100 Ways To Say I Love You [5]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Angst, Closest to being pre-slash?, In Which The Carpool System Is Confusing Even For FBI Agents, M/M, Pre-Slash, discusses Morgan being freaked out by his childhood trauma, nothing explicit ever stated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-16 00:18:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7244614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThunderAndMadness/pseuds/ThunderAndMadness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He splits his life into before Buford and after Buford.</p><p>Before Buford: childhood. He remembers playing basketball. His mother's greens.</p><p>After Buford? There is no after Buford. </p><p>Nobody survives that. Nobody escapes it.</p><p>Part 5 of "100 Ways to Say I Love You".</p>
            </blockquote>





	"I'll walk you home."

He splits his life into before Buford and after Buford.

Before Buford: childhood. He remembers playing basketball. His mother's greens.

After Buford? There is no after Buford. Every day is still....it's still there. Morgan won't deny that it's all still there. It comes up now and again, like a mouthful of bile. Today, the team is flying home from a case involving a serial rapist by the name of Rhonde. Rhonde had already raped and murdered five innocent black boys before they caught him. The sixth was alive, but Morgan knows that poor kid won't ever be the same.

Nobody survives that. Nobody escapes it. You pretend to, but it's always on you.

Morgan takes his headphones out. He listens to the sounds of everyone else on the plane instead, trying to ground himself by recognizing where he is, and with whom.

Hotch's pen is scratching against the table. He's writing a report, or playing a hidden game of sudoku.

Rossi and Prentiss are playing chess. He can hear their pieces clicking against the board. Rossi places them more lightly than Prentiss. Morgan isn't sure, but he thinks he hears Prentiss losing.

JJ and Reid are playing cards on the far side of the plane. They're engaged in the world's quietest banter session. He can't quite make out what they're saying, but it's kind of comforting to hear their voices.

He gets up and goes to sit by them. Morgan learned a while ago that sitting alone with your fear is just going to make it worse. Both of them look up from their game and offer him identical smiles. Weird how all your friends start to make the same faces after a while. They don't say anything, but both of them look like they know he's upset. They know there is no after when you go through what Morgan went through.

When the plane lands, they split off into carpool groups. Reid, Prentiss, and Morgan live in the same area. Hotch, JJ, and Rossi are the other way. Reid's car is the one they're using today, some shabby Prius type of thing, but Prentiss calls driving. Reid takes the back, Morgan takes the passenger side. He hates being a passenger, but he's not going to fight Prentiss for the wheel right now. Her apartment is closest, so when she gets out he takes over and drives to Reid's. He lives just a few streets away, so he'll walk the rest of the way home.

"Hey," Reid says, instead of getting out and letting Morgan walk home. "You OK?"

Morgan nods. Then, after another second, he shakes his head. "No, kid, I'm not. This case was too close to home." He doesn't really want to talk about it, but he knows Reid is going to ask him to.

"You wanna talk about it?"

"No," Morgan said. "Reid, I really don't."

Reid slings his go bag over his shoulder. He opens the car door, but he's still hesitating. "C'mon," he says. "Let me walk you home."

Morgan looks at him. "Why?"

"You don't want to be alone right now, do you?" Reid is fidgeting with a strand of hair, like he's nervous about asking this. "I'll walk you home."

Morgan wouldn't admit to it, but Reid is right. He really doesn't want to be alone. "Yeah, OK. Thanks."

They walk the three streets together in total silence, but with Reid next to him, he feels a little less scared.

There's no after Buford. But there's Reid, walking next to him, making sure he's OK.

**Author's Note:**

> The list of ways to say "I love you" can be found [here](http://p0ck3tf0x.tumblr.com/post/98502010026/one-hundred-ways-to-say-i-love-you). More parts to come, as always.
> 
> As they said in my heyday, concrit always appreciated. I adore comments!


End file.
